Haiku Journeys of One Kind and Another

Animals in Pants, Animals in Dreams (... Poems About Home

Haiku Journeys of One Kind and Another

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure and visit Ruth and her dream of Haiti at There is no such thing as a godforsaken town for Roundup.

Whew, what a National Poetry Month it's been! And it's not over yet...I travel today for a conference tomorrow...and then...MAY!!!
By the way, it has come to my attention that no one has received my annual NPM Live Your Poem postcard. I sent them out the first week of April, but they are LOST, I tell you. LOST! (I've been told several things...apparently there are big problems at the Birmingham USPS distribution center. I don't know, because I've mailed other things this month that made their destinations...but nary a postcard!) Sigh. Maybe they will find you eventually... I hope so.

Today I'm excited to share about Climbing the Volcano: A Journey in Haiku by Curtis Manley, illus. by Jennifer Mann (Neal Porter/Holiday House, 2024). It's a story of family's hike up South Sister Volcano in Oregon told in fifty haiku.

Here's the opening haiku:

dormant volcano—

but at sunrise each day

it blazes

Along the way, the child-narrator shares about encounters with other people are on the trail; change of temperatures; mosquitoes!; other animal encounters (marmot, dogs, owl, butterfly..); adventures at the summit (snowballs, anyone?); sliding down; and looking back up the mountain in wonder.

One of my favorite middle-of-the-book haiku:

lost—

the trail is under the snow

somewhere

The book ends with a ends with a great question... you'll have to read it to find out what! And back matter includes info about South Sister Volcano, Geology of the Cascade Mountain Range; What to bring to climb a mountain; A little bit about haiku; and more info about the Living things mentioned in the haiku (flora and fauna).

Check it out! It's a winner.

Perhaps inspired by Climbing the Volcano, this week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART is a haiku...or rather, THREE haiku! This art by Mose Tolliver just speaks to me, I guess...I couldn't decide which one to post, so I offer you all three. :) Thanks so much for reading!